Translated by Bloodfalcon, Edited by Krayto
Under Huangzhou city, within a few days after Lu Bu's duel, Lu Bu’s army and Jiangxia's army has been skirmishing more than 10 times.
Jiangxia's army are depended on two things to resist Lu Bu’s army.
The first by fortifying their defense wall and 5,000 naval units, forming a horn-shaped defense formation. Lu Bu’s army themselves cannot use cavalry attacks due to the land being very wet, dampening their impact.
So Lu Bu is deploying only infantries, resulting in very little progress.
“Damn, has Jiangxia become our roadblock?!” Lu Bu slammed his fist on the table. Being a borrowed knife for Sun Ce’s army has made Lu Bu unhappy and now Huang Zhong's forces are blocking his advance.
Chen Gong who stood on the side, also wrinkled his brow. Now that Lu Bu has defeated Huang Zhong, Jiangxia's army has been on the defense the entire time.
Actually due the the longbow men in camp, Lu Bu’s army can defeat Jiangxia's army but cannot completely crippled and annihilated them.
They have too many ways to escape, they can directly retreat using the river and plan for comeback next time. Lu Bu’s army currently consist of only land-lubbers for their naval units.
Huang Zhong's Longbow division is as strong as the Bing Province Heavy Cavalry and Formation Breaker.
Chen Gong observed that even though the Longbow division only had 3,000 people, all of them are aces in archery trained by Huang Zhong himself.
So, it can be said whenever they division launched their arrows, it would be as if Huang Zhong himself is shooting at Lu Bu’s army. That will cost many casualties in Lu Bu army.
“Should we ally ourselves with Sun Ce army?!” Actually there is another method to annihilate Jiangxia's army.
It is to contact Sun Ce’s army, form an alliance with them, and together they form a two-prong attack on Huang Zu. Lu Bu’s army through Jiangxia land road and Sun Ce’s army from the river.
“We cannot form an alliance with them!” Lu Bu shook his head. He had been coerced to be a borrowed knife by Sun Ce to kill Huang Zu. If they requested to ally with them, doesn’t that mean that Lu Bu is incompetent? That would be a big shame and Lu Bu would not allow that.
Moreover, if they did ally together, who will be the leader of the alliance?! Lu Bu or Sun Ce? And based on Lu Bu who requested the alliance, then Sun Ce would be de facto leader.
Plus if they conquer Jiangxia, then he had offended Liu Biao and if they went Xinye after Jiangxia, and since Xinye is currently under Liu Biao, they would meet a dead end no matter where they went.
Lu Bu started to feel a little regret that he did not kill Huang Zhong directly a few days ago. At this juncture, if they do not ally with Sun Ce, they will be deadlocked in Huangzhou city, as their grain and provisions start to deplete.
“How about we storm them?!” Zang Ba voiced his opinion. Zang Ba now has no division to lead, so he became Lu Bu's personal guard. “Formation Breaker as vanguard, and then use 10,000 soldiers to maintain pressure. Coupled with Bing Province Heavy Cavalry, we can destroy them in one blow!!!”
Zang Ba's idea is very good but according to current circumstances, it cannot be used. An Injury of 1000 or even 800 soldiers for defeating the enemy is currently unacceptable by Lu Bu.
Lu Bu's army only has 30,000 troops, so no matter if they win or lose, Lu Bu cannot stomach those casualties. Furthermore, Jiangxia is not their destination, so how can they afford to lose so much right now?
Isn't this what Sun Ce hoped for? For knotting an alliance with Lu Bu’s army he could control his cavalry units? Suddenly Liu Mang shouted out “I have an idea!!” making all of people present look toward Liu Mang, embarrassing him a little.
“Oh? Hanyang, what can you add to this discussion?!” Lu Bu looked at Liu Mang. Although Liu Mang is not a counselor, sometimes when Chen Gong is stumped, Liu Mang always came up with some very good solutions.
“This is just an assumption!” Said Liu Mang while all eyes in the room were looking at him.
Lu Bu continued “Even if it is an assumption, just say it! Since all of us are stumped, if you have an idea even if it's just an assumption, we would appreciate it!”
Liu Mang then continued “The one who is blocking us currently is Jiangxia's army, if it was a normal army, they are no match for us.
But currently they have leader who is very formidable, Huang Zhong, isn't that correct?!” Asked Liu Mang.
All of them nodded their heads. Huang Zhong is not only a very powerful general but he is also very capable in leadership and strategy. “That being the case, then I have a method against this veteran!” Said Liu Mang.
“You have a method against this veteran?!” What Liu Mang said is correct.
However currently from all Intel they obtained, there isn't a method against this veteran, because they have too little information on this veteran.
At the beginning of the turbulent times, when Lu Bu started his debut, Huang Zhong did not appear at all. Whether he was afraid to fight or defending his property, we currently do not know.
“I do not know if this message is accurate or not. But I got a message that Huang Zhong is not Huang Zu's men. He is Liu Biao's foster son, Liu Pan's men. And also Huang Zhong has a son named Huang Xu, his only son and his son currently has a serious illness! We can begin our approach from his son!!!” Liu Mang speaks his mind.
“Huang Zhong has a son who is currently ill?!” Chen Gong was in charge of Lu Bu’s intelligence Corp, but due to his intelligence gathering prowess has being severely compromised, he did not know anything about Huang Zhong.
He thought Huang Zhong fell from the sky therefore had no information on him, but Liu Mang knows!